


3 things Sarah wonders about James Ellison

by rose_griffes



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 21:04:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17968016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rose_griffes/pseuds/rose_griffes
Summary: tiny ficlet set in a post-canon world where Sarah, James, and Savannah go on the run together





	3 things Sarah wonders about James Ellison

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2010 and posted to livejournal. I had a post-canon idea where Sarah and James take Savannah and go to Belize to stay out of sight of Skynet and its various iterations and subsidiaries.

**3 things Sarah wonders about James Ellison**

****

****

**1) When he had time to buy the New Testament in Spanish.** She didn't know about it until they were already in Belize. Though they had fled to a primarily English-speaking country, Sarah was already making plans to trek back into Mexico, maybe Central America as well. So hearing James practice speaking wasn't all that surprising--he'd already started during their long trip here. What was surprising was hearing him quote _Yo Soy el Camino, la Verdad y la Vida_ quietly to himself while wearing earbuds. "I am the way, the truth and the life." He had two books on the table in front of him as he absently ate a slice of mango; he looked engrossed as he continued whispering words, then pausing the mp3 player to check the English text.

After listening a few more minutes, she smiled. The sounds he was repeating were Castilian Spanish. She tapped his arm. Looking up from his books, he took out one earbud.

"Unless you're planning a trip to Spain, don't make a -th sound."

"What?"

"They don't use the _theta_ \--the -th sound in Mexico or Central America. They just say an s for the letters z and c."

"Oh, right." He wrinkled his forehead. "I knew about that before..."

"In college?"

"That's right," he replied.

"College was a long time ago." 

She started to walk away again when he said, " _Gracias_ , Sarah."

"De nada," she replied. _It was nothing._

**2) How he coped so well with a six-year-old girl.** She knew James had no children of his own. Savannah hadn't been difficult during the first few days, though that was a result of the shock of all that had happened to her. Then she went through a clingy stage; Sarah remembered how much she hated that part of raising a child. John had gone through it earlier, when they were still living in the jungle. It's not that she couldn't understand why Savannah was so dependent, so _needy_ , but it tried her patience.

James dealt with Savannah patiently, calmly and kindly. Sarah just went for stoic. It was the best she could do.

**3) How he knew not to ask her about her scars.** After they were safely away from the US he spent hours in the evenings after Savannah felt asleep asking her for details on everything she could remember about each encounter with a Terminator. He drew diagrams of the structure at ZeiraCorp for her, then asked her questions until she felt like she might scream. It was a relief to have someone else know who wasn't either an adolescent budding savior of humanity or a machine, but still...

But when he finally kissed her and touched her scars, he didn't ask her any questions about them. He gently, reverently traced the visible scars with his fingers and lips and didn't say anything until later. He watched her, the expression in his eyes both sad and... soft. Something maybe like gentle or loving. Something Sarah hadn't thought about much since she grabbed her son and left Charley.

"I didn't expect you, Sarah Connor," he told her. " _Gracias._ "

She leaned her head against his shoulder and whispered, "You're welcome."


End file.
